This was the sight as I walked up to my first tea party. I admit it, I wasn’t completely sure about the Tea Party thing. While I agree with the premise I was a little afraid that the crowd my be a little, oh what should I call it? The fringe element? But I want to be more educated and informed of local politics so I went.

I was a little underwhelmed at the crowds in the stands. One local news channel says that 4000 people came but I wouldn’t say it was all at once;). I have to say that unless you were coming to hear someone specific or are completely new to the conservative movement, it isn’t really worth coming to sit in the stands to listen. Maybe I am saying that as someone who already reads a fair amount of politics on the internet .

But there were booths, booths and more booths. We had booths with petitions, local candidates, state wide campaigns with a few candidates, and then booths that were selling stuff. Some of the stuff was just that some vendor had bought a booth. Like BRE selling boxes and boxes of dvd’s. But there was a lot of “Tea Party” memorabilia being sold. I thought this booth for women’s jewelry was a bit funny. Not wrong or anything but funny.

Overall I walked through the concourse at the stadium and got a lot of information from the candidates (which I will blog more about later).  I got to meet and talk with a few candidates and heard some interesting things. I think I will probably be getting more involved in the Tea Party movement and will probably attend another one in the future. A side note: I was shocked that I didn’t see 1 person I know. I go to a conservative church and have politically active friends so I was shocked to not see anyone. Not that it matters but it was shocking;).

Oh, before I end this long droning post. Best answer from a candidate! I was talking to Lawrence Naritelli who is running for Governor. I asked him what his big issues were and one of them is water. Now in my head a bell goes off because it is a huge issue here but not really seen as something the Governorship can do much about (since it is the Federal government causing all the trouble). It really annoys me when a candidate just picks up what ever issue is a hot one in the area even if it is something they will not be involved in if elected. So I asked him what he would do about it if he is elected. He had an answer! He said that the sheriff has immediate physical jurisdiction with the actual pumps but they need an order to turn them on. So as Governor he would issue an order for the pumps to be turned on. Now I don’t know how definite of a solution that is but I was impressed he had an actual action he would do. So I deem that best answer from a candidate for the day!